First Time Quarantiner

Hurdbird88 · May 30, 2019

Like the title says, I am a first time quarantiner. In my younger days / last time I had a reef tank, I was a dump and pray guy but I’m trying to do it right this time. Following the @HotRocks process and read all the @Humblefish articles.

Equipment
20 long
HOB filter w/ seeded filter floss - Prodibio
Bubble filter seeded in cycled DT
Powerhead pointed at surface
PVC fittings

I predosed Cupramine to the goal of .25 but after Hanna testing, it was confirmed at .35. Salinity and temperature matched / confirmed so I could drop in my first two fish right away after floating. All was well.

See pictures of fish being QT’ed. Yellow Tang and Whitetail Bristletooth Tang and a picture of my QT set up to date.

hdsoftail1065 · May 30, 2019

Qt setup looks great and that Whitetail Bristletooth is stunning!

Hurdbird88 · May 30, 2019

Both have been eating everything since day one and looking great. Yesterday which was day four and second day of increasing Cupramine level slowly by AM / PM dosing with a goal of .55-.6, i came home from work and the yellow was dead. Ammonia is still reading perfect and tank is clean, only change was I started dosing medicated frozen food (general cure / focus) the night before. I was planning to dose the medicated food on one of the two feedings everyday.

I started mixing up additional water for a large water change tonight. The bristletooth was lethargic/ heavy breathing last night for a little while but seems to be fine this morning.

Any idea what I’m doing wrong? See any signs of an illness on the picture below of the dead yellow?

Thanks in advance! Sad to lose my first fish on the new journey and these two were like best buddies too...

hdsoftail1065 · May 30, 2019

Maybe @ngoodermuth or @HotRocks can point you in the right direction.

ngoodermuth · May 30, 2019

Do you have a powerhead or air stone in the tank? I’d make sure the powerhead is aimed at the surface, and if you have an air pump- you can add in for good measure.

Sounds like low-02, or possibly even ammonia starting to creep up. Sometimes the alert badge is slow to change IME, heavy breathing is a good first sign that a water change is needed. Do you have some bio-spira on hand?

Try to keep the copper steady where it is currently during water-changes, so you don’t have to start again. Velvet is another very possible explanation and in that case you will be glad to already have the copper ramping up.

HotRocks · May 30, 2019

@ngoodermuth has much more experience with cupramine than I do. Before I switched to chelated copper I used cupramine. I would start to experience lethargy and appetite suppression as soon as I got north of the .5ppm mark.

A wavemaker heavily agitating the surface is a must when using meds in a tank IMO. Great advice above.

ngoodermuth · May 30, 2019

HotRocks said:
@ngoodermuth has much more experience with cupramine than I do. Before I switched to chelated copper I used cupramine. I would start to experience lethargy and appetite suppression as soon as I got north of the .5ppm mark.

A wavemaker heavily agitating the surface is a must when using meds on a tank IMO. Great advice above.

I aim for .5 exactly when I use Cupramine. Never had issues with sensitivity or effectiveness at that level, just have to keep it as steady as possible once you get there.

Hurdbird88 · May 30, 2019

ngoodermuth said:
Do you have a powerhead or air stone in the tank? I’d make sure the powerhead is aimed at the surface, and if you have an air pump- you can add in for good measure.

Sounds like low-02, or possibly even ammonia starting to creep up. Sometimes the alert badge is slow to change IME, heavy breathing is a good first sign that a water change is needed. Do you have some bio-spira on hand?

Try to keep the copper steady where it is currently during water-changes, so you don’t have to start again. Velvet is another very possible explanation and in that case you will be glad to already have the copper ramping up.

I have power head aimed at the surface and and a bubble filter pushing out heavy bubbles. I have some prodibio left that I could add in as well. Should be at the .5 level tomorrow. Bristletooth has been doing awesome today. I mixed my 10 gallon up to .5 exactly to do a water change out of today as well. Thanks guys!

hdsoftail1065 · May 30, 2019

Glad to hear the Bristletooth is doing good! Super nice looking fish! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Hurdbird88 · Jun 3, 2019

Did an approximate 7.5 gallon water change today. Retest Cupramine and it was pegged at .52 from .51 previously. Hoping I can get through the (14) day Cupramine part of QT with one more water change and then into the second 20 long. This entire process has my nerves running a little high haha because I really like this guy. Really hoping he makes it through. Looks completely healthy and is getting a lot more comfortable with me.

GoldeneyeRet · Jun 4, 2019

Glad it's doing well, sorry about the yellow.

I suggest the problem was having both those fish in qt at once. Ammonia, oxygen level, aggression, stress , inexperience at qt, whatever the cause of death all those issues become harder to deal with when the tank load is higher. I recommend keeping the fish load very low with hardy fish until you have this down pat.

Best of luck with the whitetail, its gorgeous and kudos for doing it right this time around!

Hurdbird88 · Jun 4, 2019

GoldeneyeRet said:
Glad it's doing well, sorry about the yellow.

I suggest the problem was having both those fish in qt at once. Ammonia, oxygen level, aggression, stress , inexperience at qt, whatever the cause of death all those issues become harder to deal with when the tank load is higher. I recommend keeping the fish load very low with hardy fish until you have this down pat.

Best of luck with the whitetail, its gorgeous and kudos for doing it right this time around!

I really don’t think cause of death was aggression considering these two had been homed together since day one at the LFS (reason I bought both at once) and in QT and showed no signs but who knows. Appreciate the feed back! Definitely getting a better feel for QT now but have a long way to go.

Hurdbird88 · Jun 10, 2019

Bristletooth is getting closer to being out of the copper QT tank. So far so good. I really like this guy. Is his behavior in the video below considered breathing heavy? Time for another water change? Haven’t seen any signs of sickness on him and he’s eating like a monster still haha.